Through encapsulation, the flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels prevent water and oxygen from invading the flexible OLED display panels, from getting in contact with the internal OLED components, and from affecting the electro-optical properties of the OLED components. Thus, the encapsulation quality is particularly important for the flexible OLED display panels.
Currently, a thin film encapsulation (TFE) process is often used as the encapsulation process for the flexible OLED display panels. By alternatingly depositing inorganic and organic layers that cover the OLED display components, the TFE process prevents the water and oxygen from entering the display region inside the flexible OLED display panels, thus showing an encapsulation effect.
However, during the deposition process of the alternating inorganic and organic layers, to prevent water vapor permeation through the organic layer from the border of the organic layer, the inorganic layer may need to be bent and cover the border of the organic layer. Thus, current multilayer encapsulation structures are vulnerable to mechanical damages (e.g., cracks) after long-term and repeated mechanical bending. Accordingly, the overall flexibility of the display panels may be reduced, and cracks may easily occur, thus creating a path for water vapor permeation through the cracks, which eventually results in functional failure.
The disclosed flexible display device and fabrication method thereof are directed to solving at least partial problems set forth above and other problems.